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Hosting EmpoweredMon, 12 Nov 2018 18:39:28 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8https://blog.servermania.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/favicon.pngServerMania Bloghttps://blog.servermania.com
3232What’s So Great About Hosting In Amsterdam?https://blog.servermania.com/amsterdam-hosting-benefits/
https://blog.servermania.com/amsterdam-hosting-benefits/#respondMon, 12 Nov 2018 18:24:59 +0000https://blog.servermania.com/?p=4832Amsterdam hosting combines the best combination of connectivity, privacy, and cost in Europe. Server hosting customers benefit from low-latency connectivity, compliance with privacy regulations, and better infrastructure for their budget.In 2016, the Amsterdam data center industry grew by 30%. In 2017, it expanded even faster, a trend that is expected to continue into 2018 and beyond. Amsterdam is an attractive hosting location for cloud and colocation providers – including ServerMania – but what is it about Amsterdam that makes it the ideal hosting location for business data and applications?In short, Amsterdam offers globally competitive connectivity, privacy, and low-cost power.

Better Connectivity Means Faster Data Transfer

The Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) is one of the largest peering points in the world. In an average second, it handles 3.5 Tb of data, with peaks up to 5.5Tb per second. To put that in context, the SIX exchange in Seattle – the US’s largest exchange – has a maximum throughput of just over a terabyte per second.The internet is a network of networks. ISPs, CDN providers, and other businesses run the networks that make up the internet. But it wouldn’t be an internet if data couldn’t travel between networks.Internet exchanges are where the giant world-spanning networks meet. Hundreds of networks peer – directly connect — in Amsterdam, and peering is much faster than other types of connection. The fastest route from A to B on the internet is via an Internet Exchange, and AMS-IX is the biggest in continental Europe.Amsterdam’s data centers benefit from proximity to the Internet Exchange, and ServerMania clients who host in Amsterdam can take advantage of low-latency connectivity throughout Europe and to the rest of the world.

In Or Out?

There is also a large Internet Exchange in London. One of the reasons Amsterdam is growing so quickly is uncertainty over the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. At the moment, businesses can’t be sure which laws and regulations they will be subject to over the next few years in London.The Netherlands is not leaving the EU, which makes it a safer bet for building data centers and hosting data and servers.

Privacy

I’m sure you have heard more than enough about the GDPR over the last few months, and we can tell you that GDPR-compliance is more easily and reliably attained in a nation where the data centers are legally bound to comply.The Netherlands has strict data privacy rules of its own, in addition to the GDPR. That means company and customer data hosted in Amsterdam are about as safe as it could possibly be.

Low Cost

The major costs associated with cloud hosting, aside from the server and data center space, are power and cooling. In fact, over the life of a server, we may spend more to keep it cool and running than it costs to buy.Power is less expensive in Amsterdam than in other European cities, and we pass those savings on to our customers. That means you get more server for your money.

ServerMania In Amsterdam

ServerMania’s Amsterdam data center is close to the AMS-IX internet exchange and offers fully redundant connectivity over diverse paths to a wide range of bandwidth providers. ServerMania customers with infrastructure in Amsterdam benefit from unbeatable low-latency connectivity to Europe, the US, and the rest of the world.As an ISO/IEC 27001 certified facility, data security is of the highest standard, which helps ServerMania customers ensure that their data is safe and secure.If you would like to know more about the benefits of hosting in Amsterdam, don’t hesitate to book a free consultation today. We’ll help you find the perfect server, guaranteed. ]]>Amsterdam hosting combines the best combination of connectivity, privacy, and cost in Europe. Server hosting customers benefit from low-latency connectivity, compliance with privacy regulations, and better infrastructure for their budget.In 2016, the Amsterdam data center industry grew by 30%. In 2017, it expanded even faster, a trend that is expected to continue into 2018 and beyond. Amsterdam is an attractive hosting location for cloud and colocation providers – including ServerMania – but what is it about Amsterdam that makes it the ideal hosting location for business data and applications?In short, Amsterdam offers globally competitive connectivity, privacy, and low-cost power.

Better Connectivity Means Faster Data Transfer

The Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) is one of the largest peering points in the world. In an average second, it handles 3.5 Tb of data, with peaks up to 5.5Tb per second. To put that in context, the SIX exchange in Seattle – the US’s largest exchange – has a maximum throughput of just over a terabyte per second.The internet is a network of networks. ISPs, CDN providers, and other businesses run the networks that make up the internet. But it wouldn’t be an internet if data couldn’t travel between networks.Internet exchanges are where the giant world-spanning networks meet. Hundreds of networks peer – directly connect — in Amsterdam, and peering is much faster than other types of connection. The fastest route from A to B on the internet is via an Internet Exchange, and AMS-IX is the biggest in continental Europe.Amsterdam’s data centers benefit from proximity to the Internet Exchange, and ServerMania clients who host in Amsterdam can take advantage of low-latency connectivity throughout Europe and to the rest of the world.

In Or Out?

There is also a large Internet Exchange in London. One of the reasons Amsterdam is growing so quickly is uncertainty over the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. At the moment, businesses can’t be sure which laws and regulations they will be subject to over the next few years in London.The Netherlands is not leaving the EU, which makes it a safer bet for building data centers and hosting data and servers.

Privacy

I’m sure you have heard more than enough about the GDPR over the last few months, and we can tell you that GDPR-compliance is more easily and reliably attained in a nation where the data centers are legally bound to comply.The Netherlands has strict data privacy rules of its own, in addition to the GDPR. That means company and customer data hosted in Amsterdam are about as safe as it could possibly be.

Low Cost

The major costs associated with cloud hosting, aside from the server and data center space, are power and cooling. In fact, over the life of a server, we may spend more to keep it cool and running than it costs to buy.Power is less expensive in Amsterdam than in other European cities, and we pass those savings on to our customers. That means you get more server for your money.

ServerMania In Amsterdam

ServerMania’s Amsterdam data center is close to the AMS-IX internet exchange and offers fully redundant connectivity over diverse paths to a wide range of bandwidth providers. ServerMania customers with infrastructure in Amsterdam benefit from unbeatable low-latency connectivity to Europe, the US, and the rest of the world.As an ISO/IEC 27001 certified facility, data security is of the highest standard, which helps ServerMania customers ensure that their data is safe and secure.If you would like to know more about the benefits of hosting in Amsterdam, don’t hesitate to book a free consultation today. We’ll help you find the perfect server, guaranteed. ]]>https://blog.servermania.com/amsterdam-hosting-benefits/feed/0How To Choose The Right Server To Host Your Databasehttps://blog.servermania.com/choose-right-server-to-host-database/
https://blog.servermania.com/choose-right-server-to-host-database/#respondFri, 05 Oct 2018 09:00:58 +0000https://blog.servermania.com/?p=4721In this article, we will explore the factors that you should keep in mind when choosing a database server and take a look at three types of server – hybrid, cloud, and dedicated — and their suitability for hosting databases of various types and sizes.

A database is the heart of most modern web applications, mobile applications, and services. Whether it’s a traditional SQL database like MySQL or PostgreSQL or a NoSQL database like MongoDB, the server that hosts your database will determine its reliability, availability, and performance. In this article, we will explore the factors that you should keep in mind when choosing a database server and take a look at three types of server – hybrid, cloud, and dedicated — and their suitability for hosting databases of various types and sizes.

Which Factors Affect Database Performance?

Your choice of server hardware will have a significant impact on the performance and scalability of your database and the applications that use it.

Storage

We offer three types of database storage: SATA drives, SSD drives, and NVMe drives, in order of slowest to fastest and least to most expensive.

Storage affects database performance in two main ways: query speed and the amount of data that can be stored. When choosing a storage medium, it is important to balance requirements and costs. To do that, you need to understand how your database is to be used.

For example, you could store a multi-terabyte database that is queried infrequently on SSD or NVMe drives, but it would be expensive and you would be unlikely to see much benefit from the additional performance boost provided by the faster drives.

On the other hand, a database with high-IO requirements, one that will process a large number of concurrent queries or that is required to move a lot of data quickly, will benefit from faster drives.

Processor

Processor performance for databases depends on two factors: the speed of each core and the number of cores. Which you choose depends on the performance characteristics you need, whether your database can take advantage of multiple cores, the number of users who will access the database concurrently, and the types of queries the database will carry out.

Memory

Memory has a significant impact on database server performance. Even the fastest SSD is slower than RAM, which means that if the database can read the data required for a query into memory, it can run as fast as possible without swapping and paging.

A common rule of thumb is to choose enough RAM to ensure that you can keep the database’s indexes in RAM.

Network

It doesn’t matter how fast your database is if the network through which it feeds data to your web and application servers is slow. ServerMania provides a 100% network uptime guarantee with connection speeds of 1Gbps up to 10Gbps, which is suitable for large databases with multiple concurrent users.

Server Types

There are several types of server available for hosting databases, each of which has different performance and scalability characteristics.

Hybrid Servers

A Hybrid Server is a high-performance virtual private server. Each physical server hosts a small number of virtual servers, minimizing resource contention issues.

Hybrid servers are suitable for smaller databases with less intensive IO requirements. Hybrid servers cannot be scaled without a server migration, so they may not be the best choice for databases that are expected to grow rapidly.

Cloud Servers

If you expect your database to grow rapidly or have varying utilization patterns, cloud servers are the best option, as their resources can be scaled on demand.

Dedicated Servers

Dedicated servers offer the best performance characteristics of all the server types. At ServerMania, we offer dedicated servers in a wide range of configurations, including our brand new Intel Xeon W range. For unbeatable IO performance, we also offer a range of powerful NVMe servers.

]]>In this article, we will explore the factors that you should keep in mind when choosing a database server and take a look at three types of server – hybrid, cloud, and dedicated — and their suitability for hosting databases of various types and sizes.

A database is the heart of most modern web applications, mobile applications, and services. Whether it’s a traditional SQL database like MySQL or PostgreSQL or a NoSQL database like MongoDB, the server that hosts your database will determine its reliability, availability, and performance. In this article, we will explore the factors that you should keep in mind when choosing a database server and take a look at three types of server – hybrid, cloud, and dedicated — and their suitability for hosting databases of various types and sizes.

Which Factors Affect Database Performance?

Your choice of server hardware will have a significant impact on the performance and scalability of your database and the applications that use it.

Storage

We offer three types of database storage: SATA drives, SSD drives, and NVMe drives, in order of slowest to fastest and least to most expensive.

Storage affects database performance in two main ways: query speed and the amount of data that can be stored. When choosing a storage medium, it is important to balance requirements and costs. To do that, you need to understand how your database is to be used.

For example, you could store a multi-terabyte database that is queried infrequently on SSD or NVMe drives, but it would be expensive and you would be unlikely to see much benefit from the additional performance boost provided by the faster drives.

On the other hand, a database with high-IO requirements, one that will process a large number of concurrent queries or that is required to move a lot of data quickly, will benefit from faster drives.

Processor

Processor performance for databases depends on two factors: the speed of each core and the number of cores. Which you choose depends on the performance characteristics you need, whether your database can take advantage of multiple cores, the number of users who will access the database concurrently, and the types of queries the database will carry out.

Memory

Memory has a significant impact on database server performance. Even the fastest SSD is slower than RAM, which means that if the database can read the data required for a query into memory, it can run as fast as possible without swapping and paging.

A common rule of thumb is to choose enough RAM to ensure that you can keep the database’s indexes in RAM.

Network

It doesn’t matter how fast your database is if the network through which it feeds data to your web and application servers is slow. ServerMania provides a 100% network uptime guarantee with connection speeds of 1Gbps up to 10Gbps, which is suitable for large databases with multiple concurrent users.

Server Types

There are several types of server available for hosting databases, each of which has different performance and scalability characteristics.

Hybrid Servers

A Hybrid Server is a high-performance virtual private server. Each physical server hosts a small number of virtual servers, minimizing resource contention issues.

Hybrid servers are suitable for smaller databases with less intensive IO requirements. Hybrid servers cannot be scaled without a server migration, so they may not be the best choice for databases that are expected to grow rapidly.

Cloud Servers

If you expect your database to grow rapidly or have varying utilization patterns, cloud servers are the best option, as their resources can be scaled on demand.

Dedicated Servers

Dedicated servers offer the best performance characteristics of all the server types. At ServerMania, we offer dedicated servers in a wide range of configurations, including our brand new Intel Xeon W range. For unbeatable IO performance, we also offer a range of powerful NVMe servers.

]]>https://blog.servermania.com/choose-right-server-to-host-database/feed/0How Silicon Valley’s Open Culture is Both Its Greatest Strength and Its Greatest Weaknesshttps://blog.servermania.com/how-silicon-valleys-open-culture-is-both-its-greatest-strength-and-its-greatest-weakness/
https://blog.servermania.com/how-silicon-valleys-open-culture-is-both-its-greatest-strength-and-its-greatest-weakness/#respondTue, 02 Oct 2018 15:00:58 +0000https://blog.servermania.com/?p=4718A very interesting piece on Politico recently caught my eye. Titled How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies, it laments how the West Coast is a hotbed for foreign espionage, with spies attempting to steal technology and ideas for their own countries. Silicon Valley is especially bad due to its culture of openness and innovation, notes the piece’s author Zach Dorfman.A very interesting piece on Politico recently caught my eye. Titled How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies, it laments how the West Coast is a hotbed for foreign espionage, with spies attempting to steal technology and ideas for their own countries. Silicon Valley is especially bad due to its culture of openness and innovation, notes the piece’s author Zach Dorfman.
“We tend to think of espionage in the United States as an East Coast phenomenon,” writes Dorfman. “But foreign spies have been showing up uninvited to San Francisco and Silicon Valley for a very long time. According to former U.S. intelligence officials, that’s true today more than ever.”
“Unlike on the East Coast, foreign intel operations here aren’t as focused on the hunt for diplomatic secrets, political intelligence, or war plans,” he continues. “The open, experimental, cosmopolitan work and business culture of Silicon Valley in particular has encouraged a newer, “softer,” “nontraditional” type of espionage, said former intelligence officials—efforts that mostly target trade secrets and technology.”
Honestly? I can’t say I’m particularly phased by this news. Nor am I especially worried.
I won’t deny that this brand of espionage is a problem. Nor will I deny that we need some framework in place to prevent foreign spies from stealing technological innovations. Dorfman’s assertion that we need a system and set of incentives that will allow tech firms to report potential espionage is a sound one.
At the same time, motivations aside, how are these spies any different from the particular breed of vulture that’s always circled around cultures of innovation?
You know the type. They have no original ideas or concepts of their own. They’ve none of the passion or drive that defines an entrepreneur.
Instead, they’re lazy thieves. They don’t really care about changing or bettering the world - they just want to ride on the coattails of someone else’s success. And they’ll steal just about any idea they think will help them make bank.
We can’t let the existence of people like this get in the way of progress. Instead, all we can do is try to protect ourselves. To that end, let’s wrap up with a bit of advice on how you can do just that:

Never reveal too much about a product or idea. Only tell investors and prospective partners what’s absolutely necessary to secure their participation. Convey what your idea is and what it will do, and let them fill in the blanks.

Consider distributing NDAs. Note that some investors might refuse to sign an NDA before speaking with you - the same is true of potential clients.

Patent it as soon as possible. This is probably the best way to protect your idea. The trade-off, of course, is that it can get very expensive.

Only speak to trustworthy investors. If an investor or businessperson has a history of stealing ideas from other people, that behavior will inevitably catch up to them. For that reason, whenever you plan to meet with someone, do your research first - find out who they are, and if they’re worth sharing with.

Document every meeting. Create a paper trail. Keep minutes of every single thing you discuss about your product. That way, if someone does try to make off with it, you’ll have a paper trail for when it inevitably goes to court.
Trust your gut. Last but certainly not least, first impressions matter. If you get bad vibes from someone, don’t ignore that.
Whenever an open culture like the one seen in Silicon Valley starts to take root - whenever a region starts attracting innovators and inventors - they’ll inevitably be followed by a tide of rats. It’s always been the way of the world. And honestly, that’s okay.
The people who are actually capable of changing the world will continue to do so regardless.]]>A very interesting piece on Politico recently caught my eye. Titled How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies, it laments how the West Coast is a hotbed for foreign espionage, with spies attempting to steal technology and ideas for their own countries. Silicon Valley is especially bad due to its culture of openness and innovation, notes the piece’s author Zach Dorfman.A very interesting piece on Politico recently caught my eye. Titled How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies, it laments how the West Coast is a hotbed for foreign espionage, with spies attempting to steal technology and ideas for their own countries. Silicon Valley is especially bad due to its culture of openness and innovation, notes the piece’s author Zach Dorfman.
“We tend to think of espionage in the United States as an East Coast phenomenon,” writes Dorfman. “But foreign spies have been showing up uninvited to San Francisco and Silicon Valley for a very long time. According to former U.S. intelligence officials, that’s true today more than ever.”
“Unlike on the East Coast, foreign intel operations here aren’t as focused on the hunt for diplomatic secrets, political intelligence, or war plans,” he continues. “The open, experimental, cosmopolitan work and business culture of Silicon Valley in particular has encouraged a newer, “softer,” “nontraditional” type of espionage, said former intelligence officials—efforts that mostly target trade secrets and technology.”
Honestly? I can’t say I’m particularly phased by this news. Nor am I especially worried.
I won’t deny that this brand of espionage is a problem. Nor will I deny that we need some framework in place to prevent foreign spies from stealing technological innovations. Dorfman’s assertion that we need a system and set of incentives that will allow tech firms to report potential espionage is a sound one.
At the same time, motivations aside, how are these spies any different from the particular breed of vulture that’s always circled around cultures of innovation?
You know the type. They have no original ideas or concepts of their own. They’ve none of the passion or drive that defines an entrepreneur.
Instead, they’re lazy thieves. They don’t really care about changing or bettering the world - they just want to ride on the coattails of someone else’s success. And they’ll steal just about any idea they think will help them make bank.
We can’t let the existence of people like this get in the way of progress. Instead, all we can do is try to protect ourselves. To that end, let’s wrap up with a bit of advice on how you can do just that:

Never reveal too much about a product or idea. Only tell investors and prospective partners what’s absolutely necessary to secure their participation. Convey what your idea is and what it will do, and let them fill in the blanks.

Consider distributing NDAs. Note that some investors might refuse to sign an NDA before speaking with you - the same is true of potential clients.

Patent it as soon as possible. This is probably the best way to protect your idea. The trade-off, of course, is that it can get very expensive.

Only speak to trustworthy investors. If an investor or businessperson has a history of stealing ideas from other people, that behavior will inevitably catch up to them. For that reason, whenever you plan to meet with someone, do your research first - find out who they are, and if they’re worth sharing with.

Document every meeting. Create a paper trail. Keep minutes of every single thing you discuss about your product. That way, if someone does try to make off with it, you’ll have a paper trail for when it inevitably goes to court.
Trust your gut. Last but certainly not least, first impressions matter. If you get bad vibes from someone, don’t ignore that.
Whenever an open culture like the one seen in Silicon Valley starts to take root - whenever a region starts attracting innovators and inventors - they’ll inevitably be followed by a tide of rats. It’s always been the way of the world. And honestly, that’s okay.
The people who are actually capable of changing the world will continue to do so regardless.]]>https://blog.servermania.com/how-silicon-valleys-open-culture-is-both-its-greatest-strength-and-its-greatest-weakness/feed/0How to Compare and Analyze Website Traffichttps://blog.servermania.com/compare-and-analyze-website-traffic/
https://blog.servermania.com/compare-and-analyze-website-traffic/#respondFri, 28 Sep 2018 15:00:45 +0000https://blog.servermania.com/?p=3776In this article, we'll show you how to compare and analyze site traffic so you can take control of your site today.

On the search for an effective way to drive your website traffic? There are plenty of things you can do today to amp up organic traffic to your site. You can take charge of your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign, implement an interactive website design, or step up your content marketing campaign.

More...

But before that, it's important to know how to analyze website traffic itself. This is especially important when it comes to analyzing your competitors' site performance.

In this article, we'll show you how to compare and analyze site traffic so you can take control of your site today.

1. Know How to Analyze Site Traffic

The first step to understanding how to compare website traffic is figuring out how to analyze it.

Start by monitoring and analyzing your own website traffic through Google Analytics. This is a free and user-friendly resource that can give you a clear overview of your site traffic performance.

To use Google Analytics, sign up for an account through Google and access your tracking ID.

Use this ID to implement tracking analytics for your site. Google has very clear instructions on how to do this here.

Once you've enabled Google tracking, you can access Google Analytics and get a snapshot of your data whenever you wish.

What to Pay Attention To

When you're taking a solid look at traffic data, click on the "Visitors" tab to get an overview of who is accessing your site.

Here, you'll be able to see total visits, the number of first-time visitors, the total amount of page views, and your bounce rate.

The number of unique visitors can help you analyze the effects of current marketing campaigns. The number of recurring visitors will give you insight into customer retention.

Your bounce rate indicates how many people navigate to your website and immediately leave. Bounce rates can help you hone your website design and devise ways to keep visitors on your site.

With Google Analytics, you can also figure out where your traffic is coming from and how long visitors spend on your site.

This can give you a sense of the market that's responding to your content, and what content they're responding to the most.

Finally, you'll want to figure out how much of your traffic comes from search engines, referrals, and direct sources. Google can tell you this, too!

You'll want to keep all of this data handy when you're preparing to compare website traffic from competitors.

2. Use the Right Tools

Now that you know how to analyze your own traffic data, how do you compare website traffic from competitor sites?

It's important to note that no software out there will give you the exact breakdown of competitor site traffic.

This would, of course, constitute as hacking. We definitely don't want to go there!

But there are tools that you can use that will help you gather estimates and compare website traffic of your competitors.

These estimates can give you a sense of where your competitors are drawing traffic from. You'll get an idea of how popular their site is and even gain insight into conversion rates.

We'll take a look at a few of these tools now.

Alexa

This is a leading tool when it comes to competitive analysis. A lot of top marketers rely on Alexa when assessing the market competition.

Alexa is easy to use and provides some of the most comprehensive competitor analysis data out there.

Alexa ranks sites around the world based off of their popularity. This is called an "Alexa Rank."

When you upgrade to the paid version of this tool, you'll have access to a full suite of competitor traffic metrics.

You'll be able to see your competitors (based off of Alexa's analysis) and their performance for certain keywords or phrases in relation to yours.

You can compare website traffic in addition to traffic demographics and behavior, such as visitor location, bounce rates, and time spent on the sites themselves.

Quantcast

Quantcast offers many of the same features as Alexa. You can receive traffic estimates with a free basic account.

With a paid account, you'll be able to identify competitor traffic based on demographics, lifestyle, and behavior.

You won't have an Alexa Ranking with Quantcast, but you'll experience a user-friendly dashboard that gives you all the numbers you need.

SimilarWeb

This website comparison tool has been around for a while. You'll find rankings here similar to Alexa's, based on popularity and category performance.

SimilarWeb also gives you insight into the highest-performing referring websites. This is valuable when it comes to analyzing conversion rates and link performance.

Plus, you can take advantage of a robust free version that gives you sufficient insight into traffic estimates.

3. Leverage the Data

When you compare website traffic, you do more than just note who's outperforming whom.

It's important to analyze and leverage this data so that you can drive your own website traffic.

]]>In this article, we'll show you how to compare and analyze site traffic so you can take control of your site today.

On the search for an effective way to drive your website traffic? There are plenty of things you can do today to amp up organic traffic to your site. You can take charge of your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign, implement an interactive website design, or step up your content marketing campaign.

More...

But before that, it's important to know how to analyze website traffic itself. This is especially important when it comes to analyzing your competitors' site performance.

In this article, we'll show you how to compare and analyze site traffic so you can take control of your site today.

1. Know How to Analyze Site Traffic

The first step to understanding how to compare website traffic is figuring out how to analyze it.

Start by monitoring and analyzing your own website traffic through Google Analytics. This is a free and user-friendly resource that can give you a clear overview of your site traffic performance.

To use Google Analytics, sign up for an account through Google and access your tracking ID.

Use this ID to implement tracking analytics for your site. Google has very clear instructions on how to do this here.

Once you've enabled Google tracking, you can access Google Analytics and get a snapshot of your data whenever you wish.

What to Pay Attention To

When you're taking a solid look at traffic data, click on the "Visitors" tab to get an overview of who is accessing your site.

Here, you'll be able to see total visits, the number of first-time visitors, the total amount of page views, and your bounce rate.

The number of unique visitors can help you analyze the effects of current marketing campaigns. The number of recurring visitors will give you insight into customer retention.

Your bounce rate indicates how many people navigate to your website and immediately leave. Bounce rates can help you hone your website design and devise ways to keep visitors on your site.

With Google Analytics, you can also figure out where your traffic is coming from and how long visitors spend on your site.

This can give you a sense of the market that's responding to your content, and what content they're responding to the most.

Finally, you'll want to figure out how much of your traffic comes from search engines, referrals, and direct sources. Google can tell you this, too!

You'll want to keep all of this data handy when you're preparing to compare website traffic from competitors.

2. Use the Right Tools

Now that you know how to analyze your own traffic data, how do you compare website traffic from competitor sites?

It's important to note that no software out there will give you the exact breakdown of competitor site traffic.

This would, of course, constitute as hacking. We definitely don't want to go there!

But there are tools that you can use that will help you gather estimates and compare website traffic of your competitors.

These estimates can give you a sense of where your competitors are drawing traffic from. You'll get an idea of how popular their site is and even gain insight into conversion rates.

We'll take a look at a few of these tools now.

Alexa

This is a leading tool when it comes to competitive analysis. A lot of top marketers rely on Alexa when assessing the market competition.

Alexa is easy to use and provides some of the most comprehensive competitor analysis data out there.

Alexa ranks sites around the world based off of their popularity. This is called an "Alexa Rank."

When you upgrade to the paid version of this tool, you'll have access to a full suite of competitor traffic metrics.

You'll be able to see your competitors (based off of Alexa's analysis) and their performance for certain keywords or phrases in relation to yours.

You can compare website traffic in addition to traffic demographics and behavior, such as visitor location, bounce rates, and time spent on the sites themselves.

Quantcast

Quantcast offers many of the same features as Alexa. You can receive traffic estimates with a free basic account.

With a paid account, you'll be able to identify competitor traffic based on demographics, lifestyle, and behavior.

You won't have an Alexa Ranking with Quantcast, but you'll experience a user-friendly dashboard that gives you all the numbers you need.

SimilarWeb

This website comparison tool has been around for a while. You'll find rankings here similar to Alexa's, based on popularity and category performance.

SimilarWeb also gives you insight into the highest-performing referring websites. This is valuable when it comes to analyzing conversion rates and link performance.

Plus, you can take advantage of a robust free version that gives you sufficient insight into traffic estimates.

3. Leverage the Data

When you compare website traffic, you do more than just note who's outperforming whom.

It's important to analyze and leverage this data so that you can drive your own website traffic.

Small businesses are often called the backbone of the entire US economy.

In fact, small businesses make up 99.7 percent of all U.S. companies. With so many other small businesses to compete with, it's no wonder that being an entrepreneur can be so difficult. But, business owners don't need to only worry about competition.

More...

Cybersecurity is another major concern that small business owners need to keep in their minds. Without the extensive budget of a larger firm, small businesses may find it difficult to allocate the time and resources to beef up their cyber defenses.

But, not all hope is lost. There is an entire industry built around providing online security solutions to small businesses. In today's article, we're going to discuss cyber security concerns for small businesses and how to keep yourself protected.

Understand That the Threat Is Real

The truth is, it can be very easy for your company's servers to become compromised if you're not a tech-focused business. But, if you are compromised, the results could be catastrophic. Many small businesses depend on a small group of loyal customers, and exposing their private data to hackers could force you to close down business.

While the threat does indeed loom, there are plenty of methods you can take to help prevent this scenario.

First and foremost, you need to...

1. Train Your Staff

Hackers have to get to your company's personal information somehow, but it's not always through brute force.

More often than not, compromises result from weak passwords and social engineering.

You should properly educate your staff on how to keep their information and credentials protected. This is one of the most effective security solutions you can implement for your business.

These practices include creating a strong, unique password for each account they use to log in with and setting up two factor authentication. They should ideally use a password manager to keep their credentials secure, and protect it with a strong master password.

Employees should also be educated about phishing emails and social engineering. A common scam these days is to send an email to an employee pretending to be the CEO, asking for the employee to wire funds to an account. The email looks so legitimate that many people fall for it.

Continually remind your staff of the dangers lurking on the internet and show them examples of how sophisticated these attacks can be. They will think twice before taking action on an unknown email and could save your business from intrusion.

2. Update Your Software

There are too many entrepreneurs out there who forego updating their software when they need to.

Many of them don't budget the time, but some are just plain lazy. Regardless of why their software is outdated, it's putting them at risk.

Quite literally, refusing to update your computer's software is the equivalent of leaving the back door to your house wide open.

Hackers know that many small businesses are running older programs, so they target them specifically because it's easy to slip in and out undetected.

But, out of all the security solutions for this issue, the answer is simple: update your software.

Rather than putting it off or worrying about if an update from Apple or Microsoft is going to change your workflow, let it happen.

Protecting your company's intellectual property is worth any minor adjustments you may have to make.

3. Backup Your Files

This is another practice that people tend to forget about or ignore. Backing up your files is often the only way to retrieve them if they are stolen or deleted.

You should also backup your clients' information, too, so that productivity loss is minimized should an attack occur.

The safest precautionary measure is to have all data in at least two separate locations, one physical and one virtual.

For example, you may keep a large hard drive in your office that has all of your company's archives on it. Similarly, you should also have all of this information safely secured away in cloud storage.

It goes without saying that any backups you have should be both encrypted and password protected, and stored with a trusted server provider like ServerMania.

4. Require Permissions

You should never let anyone outside of your company access company information. This includes close friends, family, and even clients.

"Access" doesn't pertain to just usernames and passwords. You should never even let anyone, but employees use an office computer.

When it comes to employees, not everyone should have universal access to company info. You should give lower ranking employees the bare minimum they need to accomplish their tasks.

An easy way to manage what your employees can and cannot get into is by giving everyone their own unique logins.

5. Protect Your Connections

Having a WiFi network that allows anyone to connect to it is one of the worst things that a business can do.

Your WiFi and networks should be password protected, and your company should share the password with employees only. If you operate a network for customers to use, it should be completely separate from the network you do business on.

Even if they are trusted clients, you must assume the worst when it comes to cybersecurity. As soon as you introduce an infected device on the network, every computer could be compromised.

Taking the time to make sure your connection is secure could mean the difference between success and a potentially fatal blow to your company.

Security Solutions Are Vital for Your Business

Failure to take precautionary measures can only have unfavorable consequences.

Get in touch with us for more information on what you can do to improve your company's cybersecurity.

]]>In today's article, we're going to discuss cyber security concerns for small businesses and how to keep yourself protected.

Small businesses are often called the backbone of the entire US economy.

In fact, small businesses make up 99.7 percent of all U.S. companies. With so many other small businesses to compete with, it's no wonder that being an entrepreneur can be so difficult. But, business owners don't need to only worry about competition.

More...

Cybersecurity is another major concern that small business owners need to keep in their minds. Without the extensive budget of a larger firm, small businesses may find it difficult to allocate the time and resources to beef up their cyber defenses.

But, not all hope is lost. There is an entire industry built around providing online security solutions to small businesses. In today's article, we're going to discuss cyber security concerns for small businesses and how to keep yourself protected.

Understand That the Threat Is Real

The truth is, it can be very easy for your company's servers to become compromised if you're not a tech-focused business. But, if you are compromised, the results could be catastrophic. Many small businesses depend on a small group of loyal customers, and exposing their private data to hackers could force you to close down business.

While the threat does indeed loom, there are plenty of methods you can take to help prevent this scenario.

First and foremost, you need to...

1. Train Your Staff

Hackers have to get to your company's personal information somehow, but it's not always through brute force.

More often than not, compromises result from weak passwords and social engineering.

You should properly educate your staff on how to keep their information and credentials protected. This is one of the most effective security solutions you can implement for your business.

These practices include creating a strong, unique password for each account they use to log in with and setting up two factor authentication. They should ideally use a password manager to keep their credentials secure, and protect it with a strong master password.

Employees should also be educated about phishing emails and social engineering. A common scam these days is to send an email to an employee pretending to be the CEO, asking for the employee to wire funds to an account. The email looks so legitimate that many people fall for it.

Continually remind your staff of the dangers lurking on the internet and show them examples of how sophisticated these attacks can be. They will think twice before taking action on an unknown email and could save your business from intrusion.

2. Update Your Software

There are too many entrepreneurs out there who forego updating their software when they need to.

Many of them don't budget the time, but some are just plain lazy. Regardless of why their software is outdated, it's putting them at risk.

Quite literally, refusing to update your computer's software is the equivalent of leaving the back door to your house wide open.

Hackers know that many small businesses are running older programs, so they target them specifically because it's easy to slip in and out undetected.

But, out of all the security solutions for this issue, the answer is simple: update your software.

Rather than putting it off or worrying about if an update from Apple or Microsoft is going to change your workflow, let it happen.

Protecting your company's intellectual property is worth any minor adjustments you may have to make.

3. Backup Your Files

This is another practice that people tend to forget about or ignore. Backing up your files is often the only way to retrieve them if they are stolen or deleted.

You should also backup your clients' information, too, so that productivity loss is minimized should an attack occur.

The safest precautionary measure is to have all data in at least two separate locations, one physical and one virtual.

For example, you may keep a large hard drive in your office that has all of your company's archives on it. Similarly, you should also have all of this information safely secured away in cloud storage.

It goes without saying that any backups you have should be both encrypted and password protected, and stored with a trusted server provider like ServerMania.

4. Require Permissions

You should never let anyone outside of your company access company information. This includes close friends, family, and even clients.

"Access" doesn't pertain to just usernames and passwords. You should never even let anyone, but employees use an office computer.

When it comes to employees, not everyone should have universal access to company info. You should give lower ranking employees the bare minimum they need to accomplish their tasks.

An easy way to manage what your employees can and cannot get into is by giving everyone their own unique logins.

5. Protect Your Connections

Having a WiFi network that allows anyone to connect to it is one of the worst things that a business can do.

Your WiFi and networks should be password protected, and your company should share the password with employees only. If you operate a network for customers to use, it should be completely separate from the network you do business on.

Even if they are trusted clients, you must assume the worst when it comes to cybersecurity. As soon as you introduce an infected device on the network, every computer could be compromised.

Taking the time to make sure your connection is secure could mean the difference between success and a potentially fatal blow to your company.

Security Solutions Are Vital for Your Business

Failure to take precautionary measures can only have unfavorable consequences.

Get in touch with us for more information on what you can do to improve your company's cybersecurity.

]]>https://blog.servermania.com/online-security-solutions-for-small-businesses/feed/0Introducing The Intel Xeon Scalable Serieshttps://blog.servermania.com/introducing-the-intel-xeon-scalable-series/
https://blog.servermania.com/introducing-the-intel-xeon-scalable-series/#respondTue, 11 Sep 2018 15:30:50 +0000https://blog.servermania.com/?p=4715We’re proud to announce that ServerMania has two huge new additions to our hardware portfolio - Intel’s revolutionary Xeon Scalable Processors. Available immediately.We’re proud to announce that ServerMania has two huge new additions to our hardware portfolio - Intel’s revolutionary Xeon Scalable Processors. Available immediately to our dedicated hosting clients, the Intel Xeon Silver 4114 and Xeon Gold 5118 will replace the Dual E5-2630v4 and Dual E52650v4. Let’s talk a bit about what this means - and how you might leverage our new tech for your own business.

What Is The Scalable Series, Anyway?

Released in 2017, the Xeon scalable processor family features a new form of CPU architecture, codenamed Skylake. Supported by the Lewisberg chipset, they represent the largest advance for server CPUs in more than ten years. Even if they don’t look like they’re much more powerful than their predecessors on paper, they’ve got a ton of under-the-hood performance enhancements that make them run both faster and more efficiently.
AVX-512
First, they support the latest version of Advanced Vector Extensions, known as AVX-512. Developed by Intel as an extension to the x86 instruction set, AVX-512 has seen a few iterations since its initial release. In essence, you could think of it as a way to provide better commands to the CPU’s processor, adding new ‘instructions’ that allow the CPU to handle more tasks simultaneously.
In the case of AVX-512 specifically, it’s designed for extremely resource-intensive tasks like artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency mining, audio/video encoding, application development, and other high-performance computing processes. Intel’s new processors will be able to handle such tasks without as much stress as older processors, while also generally operating more efficiently.

New Mesh Architecture

Perhaps one of the most significant changes present in the scalable series is in the underlying architecture. Older processors use something known as a ring bus - essentially, data travels in a circuit between different processor nodes. As the number of processor cores increased, Intel realized how inefficient this method was, and added a second ring bus to some of its newer models.
The new Xeon processors throw that model out the window with a new, scalable ‘mesh’ architecture. Bits can be moved to or from any core on the processor via the most direct route. This not only ensures that Intel can save space by doing away with buffer switches, but also reduces overall processor latency and allows for a theoretically infinite number of cores.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that this mesh architecture isn’t 100% new - it debuted on Intel’s Knight’s Landing line. Where the Xeon Scalable Processors differentiate themselves is through Ultra Path Interconnect, a new memory and resource provisioning method that functions more dynamically than QuickPath Interconnect, which facilitated communication on the previous model of mesh.

Built-in Functionality

In addition to its mesh architecture, Intel’s new processors have the capacity to build Ethernet, Fabric, and Intel Quick Assist directly into the CPU. It’s worth mentioning that certain models of Intel’s processors don’t offer this functionality - but more on that in a moment.

An Enormous Cache

You might be forgiven for thinking the new processors offer a reduced memory cache - on paper, it looks like they do. There’s a reason for that, though. See, Intel has ensured that each core on its new processors possesses quadruple the amount of dedicated memory. It’s reduced the amount of shared memory on its processor line in light of this, as said memory is no longer necessary.

Bronze (3000 Series): Supports up to two sockets with 2133 MHz of memory. They’ve one FMA unit per core, with a maximum of eight cores. Does not support Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 or Intel Run Sure. Not available with integrated fabric, high memory capacity, or an optimized thermal profile.

Silver (4000 Series): Supports up to two sockets with 2400 MHz DDR4 memory, with one FMA unit per core and a maximum of 12 cores. Supports Intel Turbo Boost 2.0, but does not support Intel Run Sure. Not available with integrated fabric or high memory capacity.

Gold (5000/6000 Series): Supports up to 4 sockets, with either 2666 MHz DDR4/two FMA units (6000 Series) or 2400 MHz/one FMA unit per core (5000 series). The 5000 series has a maximum of 14 cores, and the 6000 series a maximum of 20. Available with integrated fabric, high memory capacity, and an optimized turbo profile. Turbo Boost and Run Sure are available for all models.

Platinum (8000 Series): Supports up to 8 sockets with 2666 MHz DDR4 memory, two FMA units per core, and up to 24 cores. Only some models support integrated fabric, high memory capacity, and optimized thermal profile. Turbo Boost and Run Sure are available for all models.

How do The New Processors Compare to Our Old Ones?

Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, let’s take a look at how the two new additions to our portfolio compare to what was previously available.

Also Available With NVME

As was the case with our Intel Xeon W processors, our Xeon Scalable Series line will be available with your choice of SATA, SSD, or NVME storage drives. Because the latter requires a different chassis, we’ll also be offering two new chasses, courtesy of Supermicro. You can learn more about NVME servers and what they offer here.

Only The Best For Your Business

At ServerMania, our core directive has always been to provide our clients with the best services and infrastructure possible. The release of these new processors is a step in the right direction in that regard. They’re cutting-edge in every sense of the word - and a perfect tool for your plan, whether you’re hosting a game server, a high-intensity database, a development environment, or anything in-between.]]>We’re proud to announce that ServerMania has two huge new additions to our hardware portfolio - Intel’s revolutionary Xeon Scalable Processors. Available immediately.We’re proud to announce that ServerMania has two huge new additions to our hardware portfolio - Intel’s revolutionary Xeon Scalable Processors. Available immediately to our dedicated hosting clients, the Intel Xeon Silver 4114 and Xeon Gold 5118 will replace the Dual E5-2630v4 and Dual E52650v4. Let’s talk a bit about what this means - and how you might leverage our new tech for your own business.

What Is The Scalable Series, Anyway?

Released in 2017, the Xeon scalable processor family features a new form of CPU architecture, codenamed Skylake. Supported by the Lewisberg chipset, they represent the largest advance for server CPUs in more than ten years. Even if they don’t look like they’re much more powerful than their predecessors on paper, they’ve got a ton of under-the-hood performance enhancements that make them run both faster and more efficiently.
AVX-512
First, they support the latest version of Advanced Vector Extensions, known as AVX-512. Developed by Intel as an extension to the x86 instruction set, AVX-512 has seen a few iterations since its initial release. In essence, you could think of it as a way to provide better commands to the CPU’s processor, adding new ‘instructions’ that allow the CPU to handle more tasks simultaneously.
In the case of AVX-512 specifically, it’s designed for extremely resource-intensive tasks like artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency mining, audio/video encoding, application development, and other high-performance computing processes. Intel’s new processors will be able to handle such tasks without as much stress as older processors, while also generally operating more efficiently.

New Mesh Architecture

Perhaps one of the most significant changes present in the scalable series is in the underlying architecture. Older processors use something known as a ring bus - essentially, data travels in a circuit between different processor nodes. As the number of processor cores increased, Intel realized how inefficient this method was, and added a second ring bus to some of its newer models.
The new Xeon processors throw that model out the window with a new, scalable ‘mesh’ architecture. Bits can be moved to or from any core on the processor via the most direct route. This not only ensures that Intel can save space by doing away with buffer switches, but also reduces overall processor latency and allows for a theoretically infinite number of cores.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that this mesh architecture isn’t 100% new - it debuted on Intel’s Knight’s Landing line. Where the Xeon Scalable Processors differentiate themselves is through Ultra Path Interconnect, a new memory and resource provisioning method that functions more dynamically than QuickPath Interconnect, which facilitated communication on the previous model of mesh.

Built-in Functionality

In addition to its mesh architecture, Intel’s new processors have the capacity to build Ethernet, Fabric, and Intel Quick Assist directly into the CPU. It’s worth mentioning that certain models of Intel’s processors don’t offer this functionality - but more on that in a moment.

An Enormous Cache

You might be forgiven for thinking the new processors offer a reduced memory cache - on paper, it looks like they do. There’s a reason for that, though. See, Intel has ensured that each core on its new processors possesses quadruple the amount of dedicated memory. It’s reduced the amount of shared memory on its processor line in light of this, as said memory is no longer necessary.

Bronze (3000 Series): Supports up to two sockets with 2133 MHz of memory. They’ve one FMA unit per core, with a maximum of eight cores. Does not support Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 or Intel Run Sure. Not available with integrated fabric, high memory capacity, or an optimized thermal profile.

Silver (4000 Series): Supports up to two sockets with 2400 MHz DDR4 memory, with one FMA unit per core and a maximum of 12 cores. Supports Intel Turbo Boost 2.0, but does not support Intel Run Sure. Not available with integrated fabric or high memory capacity.

Gold (5000/6000 Series): Supports up to 4 sockets, with either 2666 MHz DDR4/two FMA units (6000 Series) or 2400 MHz/one FMA unit per core (5000 series). The 5000 series has a maximum of 14 cores, and the 6000 series a maximum of 20. Available with integrated fabric, high memory capacity, and an optimized turbo profile. Turbo Boost and Run Sure are available for all models.

Platinum (8000 Series): Supports up to 8 sockets with 2666 MHz DDR4 memory, two FMA units per core, and up to 24 cores. Only some models support integrated fabric, high memory capacity, and optimized thermal profile. Turbo Boost and Run Sure are available for all models.

How do The New Processors Compare to Our Old Ones?

Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, let’s take a look at how the two new additions to our portfolio compare to what was previously available.

Also Available With NVME

As was the case with our Intel Xeon W processors, our Xeon Scalable Series line will be available with your choice of SATA, SSD, or NVME storage drives. Because the latter requires a different chassis, we’ll also be offering two new chasses, courtesy of Supermicro. You can learn more about NVME servers and what they offer here.

Only The Best For Your Business

At ServerMania, our core directive has always been to provide our clients with the best services and infrastructure possible. The release of these new processors is a step in the right direction in that regard. They’re cutting-edge in every sense of the word - and a perfect tool for your plan, whether you’re hosting a game server, a high-intensity database, a development environment, or anything in-between.]]>https://blog.servermania.com/introducing-the-intel-xeon-scalable-series/feed/0Everything You Wanted to Know About RAID (and Why You Need It)https://blog.servermania.com/raid-explained/
https://blog.servermania.com/raid-explained/#respondFri, 07 Sep 2018 16:26:18 +0000https://blog.servermania.com/?p=4750What is RAID, and how do you select the right RAID option for your server? In this article, we will cover the anatomy of RAID and why you need it.There are a few things you can count on in life: death, taxes, and hard drive failure or data corruption. No matter what brand of hard drives you use or what kind of drive you select, eventually you will experience drive failure. While data corruption and drive failure rates have drastically decreased due to Solid State and NVMe drives, it’s still something you need to protect against. This is accomplished through offsite backups, and RAID. But what is RAID, and how do you select the right RAID option for your server? In this article, we will cover the anatomy of RAID, the variety of options available, and tips for selecting the right one.

What is RAID?

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Simply put, it’s the process of using multiple hard drives to make a redundant copy of data. Should a drive in a RAID array fail, the data remains secure through a variety of mechanisms. The way in which the data is protected varies based on the RAID level configured. We’ll cover that later.RAID arrays utilize striping, parity, and mirroring to accomplish data redundancy. It’s important to understand what these processes mean in order to know which RAID level to select.Striping is the process of segmenting a file into multiple parties, and storing each segment on a different physical disk. This process is great for high I/O operations as data can be concurrently accessed across multiple devices, increasing throughput. But if one drive in the striping array fails, it means the file would become corrupt. That’s why striping is used concurrently with either mirroring or parity.Parity is used within RAID to achieve data redundancy during drive failure. If a drive in the array fails, the parity bit is used to rebuild the array on a new hard drive. The Boolean XOR function is used to rebuild the data stored on the surviving drive along with the parity data. Mirroring is simply copying the data on one drive and replicating it onto a second physical disk. This is the simplest form of RAID and achieves basic data redundancy on one drive, but it doesn’t offer the performance and storage enhancements that can be achieved through striping and parity.Each level of RAID uses a different level of striping, parity, and mirroring to achieve redundancy. Now that you understand basic RAID terms, let’s review RAID levels:

RAID Levels

RAID Level

Fault Tolerance

Drives Required

Description

0

No

2

Data is striped across multiple disks, improving I/O performance but without any redundancy in the event of disk failure

1

Yes

2

The data on one drive is mirrored across the other, delivering redundancy to protect against disk failure. RAID 1 does not increase performance, in fact in delivers a slightly degraded I/O experience.

5

Yes

3

Data and parity (data used for recovery) are striped across 3 or more drives. Should a drive fail, data is recreated automatically. Hard drives may be swapped out seamlessly. Servers that perform heavy write operations may notice a performance hit from RAID 5.

6

Yes

4

Identical to RAID 5, but utilizes an additional parity block so that two drives may fail and the integrity of the data remains in tact.

10

Yes

4

Combines the mirroring of RAID 1 with the striping of RAID 0, delivering significant performance and redundancy.

50

Yes

6

Combines the parity of RAID 5 with the striping of RAID 0. RAID 50 delivers increased performance and faster rebuilds than RAID 5.

60

Yes

8

Combines the benefit of RAID 6 and the parity of RAID 0, RAID 60 utilizes two RAID 6 arrays to deliver maximum performance and redundancy.

Basic vs. Premium RAID

At ServerMania, we offer two RAID levels during checkout: basic, and premium RAID. Depending on the RAID level you wish to setup and your requirements, you may wish to opt for premium RAID to ensure you receive the maximum performance from your RAID array.Here is an overview of the options we offer:

RAID Type:

Basic

Premium

Adapter Used:

LSI MegaRAID 9260

LSI MegaRAID 9271

Performance Level

Advanced

Maximum Performance

Support Disk Type

SATA / SAS

SATA / SAS

I/O Processor

800 MHz Power PC

LSISAS2208 Dual-Core RAID on Chip (ROC)

Internal Memory

512MB 800 MHz DDR II SDRAM

1GB 1333 MHz DDRIII SDRAM

Transfer Rate

Up to 6Gb/s

Up to 6Gb/s

Maximum Drives

Up to 4

Up to 16

RAID Levels

0/1/5/6/10

0/1/5/6/10/50/60

Monthly Cost

$25

$50

Hardware vs. Software RAID

RAID systems may be controlled by a dedicated hardware chip, or the operations involved with RAID may be handled by the hardware that comes standard with the server. Only the most basic forms of RAID are available via software control, and most experts agree that there is a performance hit when RAID tasks are handled by software. In nearly every case, hardware RAID is the way to go.

Selecting a RAID Level

Each project is unique and requires a different RAID level. It’s important to consider what your goals are in setting up a RAID array. Are you more concerned with data redundancy, performance increases, or both? What is your budget? How much data are you looking to store? These are all important questions to ask, and should lead you to a particular RAID level.If you’d like us to use our decades of experience to help you choose the perfect RAID setup for your project, book a free consultation. We’ll analyze your needs and budget to set you up with the best RAID configuration. Contact us to get started today. ]]>What is RAID, and how do you select the right RAID option for your server? In this article, we will cover the anatomy of RAID and why you need it.There are a few things you can count on in life: death, taxes, and hard drive failure or data corruption. No matter what brand of hard drives you use or what kind of drive you select, eventually you will experience drive failure. While data corruption and drive failure rates have drastically decreased due to Solid State and NVMe drives, it’s still something you need to protect against. This is accomplished through offsite backups, and RAID. But what is RAID, and how do you select the right RAID option for your server? In this article, we will cover the anatomy of RAID, the variety of options available, and tips for selecting the right one.

What is RAID?

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Simply put, it’s the process of using multiple hard drives to make a redundant copy of data. Should a drive in a RAID array fail, the data remains secure through a variety of mechanisms. The way in which the data is protected varies based on the RAID level configured. We’ll cover that later.RAID arrays utilize striping, parity, and mirroring to accomplish data redundancy. It’s important to understand what these processes mean in order to know which RAID level to select.Striping is the process of segmenting a file into multiple parties, and storing each segment on a different physical disk. This process is great for high I/O operations as data can be concurrently accessed across multiple devices, increasing throughput. But if one drive in the striping array fails, it means the file would become corrupt. That’s why striping is used concurrently with either mirroring or parity.Parity is used within RAID to achieve data redundancy during drive failure. If a drive in the array fails, the parity bit is used to rebuild the array on a new hard drive. The Boolean XOR function is used to rebuild the data stored on the surviving drive along with the parity data. Mirroring is simply copying the data on one drive and replicating it onto a second physical disk. This is the simplest form of RAID and achieves basic data redundancy on one drive, but it doesn’t offer the performance and storage enhancements that can be achieved through striping and parity.Each level of RAID uses a different level of striping, parity, and mirroring to achieve redundancy. Now that you understand basic RAID terms, let’s review RAID levels:

RAID Levels

RAID Level

Fault Tolerance

Drives Required

Description

0

No

2

Data is striped across multiple disks, improving I/O performance but without any redundancy in the event of disk failure

1

Yes

2

The data on one drive is mirrored across the other, delivering redundancy to protect against disk failure. RAID 1 does not increase performance, in fact in delivers a slightly degraded I/O experience.

5

Yes

3

Data and parity (data used for recovery) are striped across 3 or more drives. Should a drive fail, data is recreated automatically. Hard drives may be swapped out seamlessly. Servers that perform heavy write operations may notice a performance hit from RAID 5.

6

Yes

4

Identical to RAID 5, but utilizes an additional parity block so that two drives may fail and the integrity of the data remains in tact.

10

Yes

4

Combines the mirroring of RAID 1 with the striping of RAID 0, delivering significant performance and redundancy.

50

Yes

6

Combines the parity of RAID 5 with the striping of RAID 0. RAID 50 delivers increased performance and faster rebuilds than RAID 5.

60

Yes

8

Combines the benefit of RAID 6 and the parity of RAID 0, RAID 60 utilizes two RAID 6 arrays to deliver maximum performance and redundancy.

Basic vs. Premium RAID

At ServerMania, we offer two RAID levels during checkout: basic, and premium RAID. Depending on the RAID level you wish to setup and your requirements, you may wish to opt for premium RAID to ensure you receive the maximum performance from your RAID array.Here is an overview of the options we offer:

RAID Type:

Basic

Premium

Adapter Used:

LSI MegaRAID 9260

LSI MegaRAID 9271

Performance Level

Advanced

Maximum Performance

Support Disk Type

SATA / SAS

SATA / SAS

I/O Processor

800 MHz Power PC

LSISAS2208 Dual-Core RAID on Chip (ROC)

Internal Memory

512MB 800 MHz DDR II SDRAM

1GB 1333 MHz DDRIII SDRAM

Transfer Rate

Up to 6Gb/s

Up to 6Gb/s

Maximum Drives

Up to 4

Up to 16

RAID Levels

0/1/5/6/10

0/1/5/6/10/50/60

Monthly Cost

$25

$50

Hardware vs. Software RAID

RAID systems may be controlled by a dedicated hardware chip, or the operations involved with RAID may be handled by the hardware that comes standard with the server. Only the most basic forms of RAID are available via software control, and most experts agree that there is a performance hit when RAID tasks are handled by software. In nearly every case, hardware RAID is the way to go.

Selecting a RAID Level

Each project is unique and requires a different RAID level. It’s important to consider what your goals are in setting up a RAID array. Are you more concerned with data redundancy, performance increases, or both? What is your budget? How much data are you looking to store? These are all important questions to ask, and should lead you to a particular RAID level.If you’d like us to use our decades of experience to help you choose the perfect RAID setup for your project, book a free consultation. We’ll analyze your needs and budget to set you up with the best RAID configuration. Contact us to get started today. ]]>https://blog.servermania.com/raid-explained/feed/0ServerMania Releases Xeon Scalable Silver 4114 and Gold 5118 CPU Modelshttps://blog.servermania.com/servermania-releases-xeon-scalable-silver-4114-and-gold-5118-cpu-models/
https://blog.servermania.com/servermania-releases-xeon-scalable-silver-4114-and-gold-5118-cpu-models/#respondMon, 30 Jul 2018 17:19:15 +0000https://blog.servermania.com/?p=4385ServerMania, a leading provider of dedicated and cloud hosting, today announced the release of two new CPU models for its hosting clients - the Intel Xeon Silver 4114 and Xeon Gold 5118.ServerMania, a leading provider of dedicated and cloud hosting, today announced the release of two new CPU models for its hosting clients - the Intel Xeon Silver 4114 and Xeon Gold 5118.
Intel’s Xeon Scalable Processors, codenamed Skylake, use a new Chipset known as Lewisberg. In addition to significant performance enhancements, these processors offer enhanced mesh architecture, built-in networking and fabric, and a new x86 instruction set developed specifically for high-performance computing environments. They have been touted as the most significant leap forward in server CPUs in over a decade.
As with the recently-announced W-Series Servers, ServerMania will offer the Xeon Silver 4114 and Gold 5118 with a choice of SATA, SSD, or NVME storage drives. The former will have 10 cores, 20 threads, and a frequency of 2.2 gHz. The latter will have 12 cores, 24 threads, and a frequency of 2.3 gHz.
Both options are intended as replacements for two of ServerMania’s legacy dedicated servers - the Dual E5-2630v4 and Dual E52650v4. Although the specs between the two are similar, the performance enhancements and tweaks present in the Xeon line make them far better-suited for high-demand, heavy-load computing tasks, per Kevin Blanchard, ServerMania CEO.
“The Intel Xeon Silver and Gold lines, much like the W-Series, are ideally-suited for the sort of high-intensity workload our clients frequently require,” explains Blanchard. “They are a significant step up from the legacy E5-2600 line, with more versatility, flexibility, and efficiency. We feel our clients both great and small will be incredibly satisfied with these new options.”
As with the W-Series, the Intel Xeon Scalable Series will be available both managed and unmanaged, with two tiers available in the former case. Essential is intended for clients who prefer to manage their own servers with technical support from ServerMania. The latter, Empowered, will see ServerMania’s engineers handle setup, security audits, patching, hardening, and more.
“We’ve always sought to provide the best services and infrastructure possible to our clients,” says Blanchard. “Offering the Xeon Scalable Series is a step forward in that regard. They’re cutting-edge in every sense of the word.”
“As always,” Blanchard continues, “ServerMania will accommodate any unique hardware or managed services requirements. We’re interested in enabling and empowering our clients - everything else is secondary.”
####
About ServerMania:
Since it was founded in 2002, ServerMania has always strived to provide its clients with enterprise-level service at an unbeatable cost. ServerMania offers a wide range of fully-customizable dedicated, hybrid, cloud and colocation hosting services. All ServerMania clients enjoy a 100% uptime SLA and are assisted by a 24/7 rapid response team - one with some of the best response times in the industry. ServerMania also carries out regular surveys to ensure complete customer satisfaction and care. For more information, visit http://www.servermania.com.]]>ServerMania, a leading provider of dedicated and cloud hosting, today announced the release of two new CPU models for its hosting clients - the Intel Xeon Silver 4114 and Xeon Gold 5118.ServerMania, a leading provider of dedicated and cloud hosting, today announced the release of two new CPU models for its hosting clients - the Intel Xeon Silver 4114 and Xeon Gold 5118.
Intel’s Xeon Scalable Processors, codenamed Skylake, use a new Chipset known as Lewisberg. In addition to significant performance enhancements, these processors offer enhanced mesh architecture, built-in networking and fabric, and a new x86 instruction set developed specifically for high-performance computing environments. They have been touted as the most significant leap forward in server CPUs in over a decade.
As with the recently-announced W-Series Servers, ServerMania will offer the Xeon Silver 4114 and Gold 5118 with a choice of SATA, SSD, or NVME storage drives. The former will have 10 cores, 20 threads, and a frequency of 2.2 gHz. The latter will have 12 cores, 24 threads, and a frequency of 2.3 gHz.
Both options are intended as replacements for two of ServerMania’s legacy dedicated servers - the Dual E5-2630v4 and Dual E52650v4. Although the specs between the two are similar, the performance enhancements and tweaks present in the Xeon line make them far better-suited for high-demand, heavy-load computing tasks, per Kevin Blanchard, ServerMania CEO.
“The Intel Xeon Silver and Gold lines, much like the W-Series, are ideally-suited for the sort of high-intensity workload our clients frequently require,” explains Blanchard. “They are a significant step up from the legacy E5-2600 line, with more versatility, flexibility, and efficiency. We feel our clients both great and small will be incredibly satisfied with these new options.”
As with the W-Series, the Intel Xeon Scalable Series will be available both managed and unmanaged, with two tiers available in the former case. Essential is intended for clients who prefer to manage their own servers with technical support from ServerMania. The latter, Empowered, will see ServerMania’s engineers handle setup, security audits, patching, hardening, and more.
“We’ve always sought to provide the best services and infrastructure possible to our clients,” says Blanchard. “Offering the Xeon Scalable Series is a step forward in that regard. They’re cutting-edge in every sense of the word.”
“As always,” Blanchard continues, “ServerMania will accommodate any unique hardware or managed services requirements. We’re interested in enabling and empowering our clients - everything else is secondary.”
####
About ServerMania:
Since it was founded in 2002, ServerMania has always strived to provide its clients with enterprise-level service at an unbeatable cost. ServerMania offers a wide range of fully-customizable dedicated, hybrid, cloud and colocation hosting services. All ServerMania clients enjoy a 100% uptime SLA and are assisted by a 24/7 rapid response team - one with some of the best response times in the industry. ServerMania also carries out regular surveys to ensure complete customer satisfaction and care. For more information, visit http://www.servermania.com.]]>https://blog.servermania.com/servermania-releases-xeon-scalable-silver-4114-and-gold-5118-cpu-models/feed/0NVMe Dedicated Servers Bring Unbeatable I/O Performance To ServerManiahttps://blog.servermania.com/nvme-dedicated-servers-bring-unbeatable-i-o-performance-to-servermania/
https://blog.servermania.com/nvme-dedicated-servers-bring-unbeatable-i-o-performance-to-servermania/#respondMon, 09 Jul 2018 15:09:40 +0000https://blog.servermania.com/?p=3839We are introducing a new range of Dedicated Server hosting plans that include support for NVMe, a modern storage protocol that works with SSDs to provide faster I/O and much larger data bandwidths. […]

We are introducing a new range of Dedicated Server hosting plans that include support for NVMe, a modern storage protocol that works with SSDs to provide faster I/O and much larger data bandwidths.

More...

Server hosting clients who take advantage of our new NVMe servers can expect data transfer speed improvements of up to six times, with substantially increased IOPS and lower latencies.

NVMe Dedicated Servers are part of an entirely new range, with a larger chassis and new storage connectors and chipsets.

The new servers are ideal for hosting I/O-bound applications that can't deliver data to the server's processors fast enough.

What Is NVMe?

Enterprise-grade SSDs are fast. In fact, they're so fast that SATA becomes a bottleneck: it can't move data as fast as solid state drives can read and write it.

The Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCIS) — or NVM Express — is a new storage interface protocol based on PCI Express, which connects to a server's PCIe bus. Unlike SATA, PCIe has a direct line to the CPU. NVMe was designed from scratch to take advantage of the performance, low-latency, and parallelism of solid state drives.

The result is a massive I/O performance boost. SATA provides maximum bandwidths of around 750Mb/s. A single PCIe lane can move 965Mb/s, and NVMe uses 8 PCIe lanes in parallel, delivering bandwidths of up to 2.8 GB/s.

It's not just bandwidth that gets a boost: read/write performance is much enhanced, with read latencies as low as 20 µs. That's 20 microseconds. SSD latencies are usually measured in milliseconds with SATA, so there is an orders of magnitude latency improvement when moving to NVMe.

NVMe Makes Everything Faster

Any I/O-bound application benefits from the performance improvements of NVMe.The technology is likely to be of particular interest to dedicated game server hosting clients, who will be able to move data from SSD drives to GPUs and CPUs much more quickly than has ever been possible before, enhancing game performance and maximizing the utilization of expensive processor and graphics hardware.

NVMe is often used to host a caching layer for large databases, and can offer speed increases for databases of any size. The same is true for complex web sites and eCommerce stores that require a lot of disk access. And NVMe is great for hosting virtual machines: cloud platforms often suffer from performance issues caused by slow disk I/O.

NVMe At ServerMania

NVMe is available for several of our dedicated server lines with storage capacities ranging from 240 GB to 11 TB.

NVMe storage is perfectly matched with our brand-new Intel Xeon W dedicated server range, which combines the cutting-edge of processor and storage technology for the ultimate fast and reliable dedicated server. You can read more about ServerMania's Intel Xeon W Dedicated Servers here.

To find out how NVMe can improve the performance of your website, application, or game server, get in touch today.

]]>We are introducing a new range of Dedicated Server hosting plans that include support for NVMe, a modern storage protocol that works with SSDs to provide faster I/O and much larger data bandwidths. […]

We are introducing a new range of Dedicated Server hosting plans that include support for NVMe, a modern storage protocol that works with SSDs to provide faster I/O and much larger data bandwidths.

More...

Server hosting clients who take advantage of our new NVMe servers can expect data transfer speed improvements of up to six times, with substantially increased IOPS and lower latencies.

NVMe Dedicated Servers are part of an entirely new range, with a larger chassis and new storage connectors and chipsets.

The new servers are ideal for hosting I/O-bound applications that can't deliver data to the server's processors fast enough.

What Is NVMe?

Enterprise-grade SSDs are fast. In fact, they're so fast that SATA becomes a bottleneck: it can't move data as fast as solid state drives can read and write it.

The Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCIS) — or NVM Express — is a new storage interface protocol based on PCI Express, which connects to a server's PCIe bus. Unlike SATA, PCIe has a direct line to the CPU. NVMe was designed from scratch to take advantage of the performance, low-latency, and parallelism of solid state drives.

The result is a massive I/O performance boost. SATA provides maximum bandwidths of around 750Mb/s. A single PCIe lane can move 965Mb/s, and NVMe uses 8 PCIe lanes in parallel, delivering bandwidths of up to 2.8 GB/s.

It's not just bandwidth that gets a boost: read/write performance is much enhanced, with read latencies as low as 20 µs. That's 20 microseconds. SSD latencies are usually measured in milliseconds with SATA, so there is an orders of magnitude latency improvement when moving to NVMe.

NVMe Makes Everything Faster

Any I/O-bound application benefits from the performance improvements of NVMe.The technology is likely to be of particular interest to dedicated game server hosting clients, who will be able to move data from SSD drives to GPUs and CPUs much more quickly than has ever been possible before, enhancing game performance and maximizing the utilization of expensive processor and graphics hardware.

NVMe is often used to host a caching layer for large databases, and can offer speed increases for databases of any size. The same is true for complex web sites and eCommerce stores that require a lot of disk access. And NVMe is great for hosting virtual machines: cloud platforms often suffer from performance issues caused by slow disk I/O.

NVMe At ServerMania

NVMe is available for several of our dedicated server lines with storage capacities ranging from 240 GB to 11 TB.

NVMe storage is perfectly matched with our brand-new Intel Xeon W dedicated server range, which combines the cutting-edge of processor and storage technology for the ultimate fast and reliable dedicated server. You can read more about ServerMania's Intel Xeon W Dedicated Servers here.

To find out how NVMe can improve the performance of your website, application, or game server, get in touch today.

]]>https://blog.servermania.com/nvme-dedicated-servers-bring-unbeatable-i-o-performance-to-servermania/feed/0Introducing ServerMania Cloud Backuphttps://blog.servermania.com/introducing-servermania-cloud-backup/
https://blog.servermania.com/introducing-servermania-cloud-backup/#respondSat, 07 Jul 2018 23:25:49 +0000https://blog.servermania.com/?p=3799​We are proud to announce the introduction of a brand-new cloud backup service that offers effortless backup and restore for all your business’s data. One thing is true of all ServerMania hosting clients: data is among their most valuable assets. […]

​We are proud to announce the introduction of a brand-new cloud backup service that offers effortless backup and restore for all your business’s data.

One thing is true of all ServerMania hosting clients: data is among their most valuable assets.

More...

We understand just how important data is to your business, which is why we are bringing you a new backup service to take care of all of your virtual, physical, mobile, and cloud backup requirements.

Based on cutting-edge backup technology from Acronis, ServerMania’s new backup service offers comprehensive local and cloud data protection and disaster recovery to businesses of all sizes.

Your data is safe with ServerMania

Our mission is to provide all businesses with inexpensive, easy-to-use, enterprise-grade servers and managed services. When we decided to build a new backup service for our customers, we had a long list of requirements.

Frictionless

The only good backup is an automated and easy-to-use backup, because if backing up is hard, it doesn’t get done.

Easy access to data

Users should be able to access their backed-up files individually, by disk, by disk partition, and by virtual machine. A backup system with flexible data access allows clients to quickly recover from any data loss, whether the incident involves a single file or a cluster of servers.Restore speed was also a major factor. Every minute that customers don’t have access to their data can be counted in lost revenue and productivity.

Backup everything

Any loss of data can impact productivity, and our customers use a host of different devices, from the servers in our data centers to the smartphones they carry every day. We aim to provide a comprehensive backup service that can cope with all of your data.

Secure

Security was our number one concern when building a backup solution that our customers can trust. Data should be encrypted in transit and at rest. It should be held in secure data centers with the highest levels of physical and network security.

ServerMania Cloud Backup

ServerMania Cloud Backup is engineered to provide effortless backups across the full range of ServerMania hosting options and any other devices a business uses to store and process data.

It just works

Once you have added devices to your backup and carried out an initial configuration, ServerMania Cloud Backup will take care of backing up your servers, virtual machines, and local devices. Your data will be waiting for you when you need it. Data is backed up in real-time to secure storage, ensuring your backup never gets out-of-sync with production data.

Secure data storage

All in-transit data is protected by SSL encryption. When at rest, data is encrypted using AES-256, an industry-standard encryption algorithm that provides unbreakable privacy for all backed-up data. Data is stored in our SSAE-certified data centers with impeccable physical and network security.

A complete backup solution

You use a diverse range of hardware and software, and your backup solution should be able to handle your data no matter where it originates. ServerMania Cloud Backup is compatible with a wide range of operating systems and data formats, including Linux, Windows, and MacOS, iOS and Android mobile devices, Microsoft SQL, Exchange, and Active Directory, and many more.Add your business’s mobile devices, desktop machines, and laptops to ServerMania Cloud Backup for complete data protection.

Industry-leading recovery times

Your backups are available for immediate restoration whenever the need arises. There is no waiting for data to be pulled from archived disks or cold storage systems: it’s all live, online, and ready to be restored at a moment’s notice.Immediately access backed-up Windows and Linux servers as virtual machines running on our platform without transferring data for industry-leading 15-second recovery times.

Granular, bare metal, and virtual machine recovery

Get your data back in the form that is most useful to you, whether that’s as a bare-metal restore to the devices of your choice, files or sets of files, or as a virtual machine image.

Why do businesses need backups?

Without up-to-date, comprehensive, offsite backups, your business is under threat from malware, ransomware, security compromises, human error, software bugs, natural disasters, and hardware failure. Your most valuable asset is also your most fragile.Sixty percent of small businesses without backups that suffer a major data loss don’t survive. Larger businesses are more likely to survive a large data loss, but damage to customer confidence, revenue, and reputation regularly costs businesses millions of dollars.

Online crime

Every business suffers attacks against their online infrastructure. Criminals can probe thousands of servers a second for weaknesses, and their bots don’t take time off. Your security team has to get it right every day, but a criminal only has to be lucky once.Over half of businesses that suffer data loss because of online crime also suffer losses in customer loyalty, trust, and reputation; nearly a quarter lose business opportunities; a third lose revenue.Although there are many types of online attacks, ransomware deserves a special mention. Massive ransomware attacks swept the US and Europe in 2017. Hundreds of millions of dollars were lost to downtime, much more than was paid in ransom to the attackers. An up-to-date offsite backup is the only certain defense against ransomware: criminals can’t ransom your data if you have a secure offsite backup.Ransomware in particular demonstrates the importance of offsite backups. Modern ransomware is sophisticated enough to seek out storage devices connected to your servers directly or over the network. Local backups are important, but they must be supplemented by secure remote backups.

Human error

Thousands of data loss incidents are caused each year by human error. From techs tripping over cables in data centers to developers who accidentally delete business-critical databases, to err is human. Studies have shown that around half of all data loss incidents are caused by human error.These incidents are an unavoidable threat to business continuity, but a backup system that can restore data quickly will stop an embarrassing accident from turning into an expensive catastrophe.

Hardware failure

Your business depends on an intricate and complex hardware stack. High-quality components and redundancy reduce the probability of failure, but, given enough time, hardware will fail unpredictably and data will be lost as a result.Low-friction, offsite, up-to-date backups protect your company against a wide range of incidents that can cost it money, time, and the trust of its customers.

]]>​We are proud to announce the introduction of a brand-new cloud backup service that offers effortless backup and restore for all your business’s data. One thing is true of all ServerMania hosting clients: data is among their most valuable assets. […]

​We are proud to announce the introduction of a brand-new cloud backup service that offers effortless backup and restore for all your business’s data.

One thing is true of all ServerMania hosting clients: data is among their most valuable assets.

More...

We understand just how important data is to your business, which is why we are bringing you a new backup service to take care of all of your virtual, physical, mobile, and cloud backup requirements.

Based on cutting-edge backup technology from Acronis, ServerMania’s new backup service offers comprehensive local and cloud data protection and disaster recovery to businesses of all sizes.

Your data is safe with ServerMania

Our mission is to provide all businesses with inexpensive, easy-to-use, enterprise-grade servers and managed services. When we decided to build a new backup service for our customers, we had a long list of requirements.

Frictionless

The only good backup is an automated and easy-to-use backup, because if backing up is hard, it doesn’t get done.

Easy access to data

Users should be able to access their backed-up files individually, by disk, by disk partition, and by virtual machine. A backup system with flexible data access allows clients to quickly recover from any data loss, whether the incident involves a single file or a cluster of servers.Restore speed was also a major factor. Every minute that customers don’t have access to their data can be counted in lost revenue and productivity.

Backup everything

Any loss of data can impact productivity, and our customers use a host of different devices, from the servers in our data centers to the smartphones they carry every day. We aim to provide a comprehensive backup service that can cope with all of your data.

Secure

Security was our number one concern when building a backup solution that our customers can trust. Data should be encrypted in transit and at rest. It should be held in secure data centers with the highest levels of physical and network security.

ServerMania Cloud Backup

ServerMania Cloud Backup is engineered to provide effortless backups across the full range of ServerMania hosting options and any other devices a business uses to store and process data.

It just works

Once you have added devices to your backup and carried out an initial configuration, ServerMania Cloud Backup will take care of backing up your servers, virtual machines, and local devices. Your data will be waiting for you when you need it. Data is backed up in real-time to secure storage, ensuring your backup never gets out-of-sync with production data.

Secure data storage

All in-transit data is protected by SSL encryption. When at rest, data is encrypted using AES-256, an industry-standard encryption algorithm that provides unbreakable privacy for all backed-up data. Data is stored in our SSAE-certified data centers with impeccable physical and network security.

A complete backup solution

You use a diverse range of hardware and software, and your backup solution should be able to handle your data no matter where it originates. ServerMania Cloud Backup is compatible with a wide range of operating systems and data formats, including Linux, Windows, and MacOS, iOS and Android mobile devices, Microsoft SQL, Exchange, and Active Directory, and many more.Add your business’s mobile devices, desktop machines, and laptops to ServerMania Cloud Backup for complete data protection.

Industry-leading recovery times

Your backups are available for immediate restoration whenever the need arises. There is no waiting for data to be pulled from archived disks or cold storage systems: it’s all live, online, and ready to be restored at a moment’s notice.Immediately access backed-up Windows and Linux servers as virtual machines running on our platform without transferring data for industry-leading 15-second recovery times.

Granular, bare metal, and virtual machine recovery

Get your data back in the form that is most useful to you, whether that’s as a bare-metal restore to the devices of your choice, files or sets of files, or as a virtual machine image.

Why do businesses need backups?

Without up-to-date, comprehensive, offsite backups, your business is under threat from malware, ransomware, security compromises, human error, software bugs, natural disasters, and hardware failure. Your most valuable asset is also your most fragile.Sixty percent of small businesses without backups that suffer a major data loss don’t survive. Larger businesses are more likely to survive a large data loss, but damage to customer confidence, revenue, and reputation regularly costs businesses millions of dollars.

Online crime

Every business suffers attacks against their online infrastructure. Criminals can probe thousands of servers a second for weaknesses, and their bots don’t take time off. Your security team has to get it right every day, but a criminal only has to be lucky once.Over half of businesses that suffer data loss because of online crime also suffer losses in customer loyalty, trust, and reputation; nearly a quarter lose business opportunities; a third lose revenue.Although there are many types of online attacks, ransomware deserves a special mention. Massive ransomware attacks swept the US and Europe in 2017. Hundreds of millions of dollars were lost to downtime, much more than was paid in ransom to the attackers. An up-to-date offsite backup is the only certain defense against ransomware: criminals can’t ransom your data if you have a secure offsite backup.Ransomware in particular demonstrates the importance of offsite backups. Modern ransomware is sophisticated enough to seek out storage devices connected to your servers directly or over the network. Local backups are important, but they must be supplemented by secure remote backups.

Human error

Thousands of data loss incidents are caused each year by human error. From techs tripping over cables in data centers to developers who accidentally delete business-critical databases, to err is human. Studies have shown that around half of all data loss incidents are caused by human error.These incidents are an unavoidable threat to business continuity, but a backup system that can restore data quickly will stop an embarrassing accident from turning into an expensive catastrophe.

Hardware failure

Your business depends on an intricate and complex hardware stack. High-quality components and redundancy reduce the probability of failure, but, given enough time, hardware will fail unpredictably and data will be lost as a result.Low-friction, offsite, up-to-date backups protect your company against a wide range of incidents that can cost it money, time, and the trust of its customers.